Telecommunications firms are to benefit from 100% non-domestic rates relief on new fibre broadband infrastructure in Scotland to help them make the business case for installations, the Scottish government has revealed

Authorised and unauthorised fraud totalled £1.2bn in 2018, with the theft of personal and financial data through social engineering a major contributor to fraud losses, according to the annual report from UK Finance

A group of over 500 former sub-postmasters (SPMs) have won an important first step in a series of trials relating to claims that the Post Office incorrectly and unfairly held them responsible for accounting discrepancies, which they held were due to failings with the Post Office’s Horizon IT system

Despite the importance of the digital economy and the move to online services such as Making Tax Digital, the government does not have a sufficiently clear strategy for ensuring cyber security and may not have allocated sufficient funds to its five-year action programme, the National Audit Office (NAO) is warning

The government has signalled it plans to take further action on the digital economy, including requiring companies like Apple, Microsoft and Google to make it easier to move data between platforms, after a Treasury report recommended greater competition in the market

Financial discrepancies in month end reporting and inaccurate financial data is a major risk and reputational issue for CFOs and finance directors so why does the C-suite trust the numbers, asks Mario Spanicciati, chief strategy officer at BlackLine

Less than a fifth (16%) of FTSE 350 boards have a comprehensive understanding of the impact of loss or disruption associated with cyber threats, despite almost all (96%) having a cyber security strategy in place, government research has found

PwC is testing the use of blockchain technology to issue staff with digital versions of their certifications, kept in virtual wallets, as part of an initiative looking at ways to reduce the amount of time and cost organisations spend checking an individual’s identify and qualifications

The government has announced plans to phase in for EU imports the pre-arrival forms known as entry summary declarations, if the UK leaves the EU without a withdrawal deal, in a bid to ease trading arrangements post-Brexit

Technology companies are set to challenge accountancy firms’ traditional dominance of the audit market, as client companies start to separate their audit into separate elements, according to analysis from Source Global Research which suggests Deloitte is the front runner for embracing this change

The Corporate Finance Network (CFN), a UK network of independent regional accountancy firms, has announced a national partnership with online lending broker Capitalise.com, which will enable member firms to access the funding platform when working with their SME clients to source finance

Australian accounting software company Calxa was forced to activate its disaster management plan following a ‘once in a century’ flood which saw homes and offices abandoned and snakes and crocodiles swimming through the streets, but with businesses needing to keep online services running despite the deluge

Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange is unable to access around $145m in cryptocurrency after its founder suddenly died, taking with him the only password for the digital account

Most finance teams and professionals are failing to evolve their skills fast enough to account for the impact of artificial intelligence, robotic process automation and other technologies on traditional accounting tasks, according to research from CIMA which is updating its qualifications in response

Advances in technology and changing client expectations are leading many younger accountants to change how they do business, leaving many traditional firms behind, argues Colin Hewitt, CEO of Float